Tales of Berseria was the moment that Bandai Namco’s long-running Tales series finally started to grow on me. It was the narrative. Berseria’s dark story of tragedy and revenge was a real page turner. Related reading: An interview we did with the developer of Tales of Berseria at the time that the game was released. Tales of Berseria Remastered is…
Nintendo’s decision to revive the Famicom Detective Club series seems to have kick-started a mild rush of new games that are, effectively, mystery visual novels, but have point-and-click elements and light puzzles to keep players interested and intrigued. That’s a good thing. This genre is excellent. And Aksys’ decision to…
I am a firm believer that as many video games, be they…
Nintendo’s timing with its no-pressure comfort food games has been fortuitous. Animal…
Some licensed games aim to introduce people to the property, and in doing so help to expand the overall number of fans the thing has. Koei Tecmo has been particularly successful at that over the years, applying the Warriors (Musou) formula to several emerging IP. Arslan: The Warriors of Legend,…
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One – also known as Kagayaku Kisetsu e – is one of the legends of the visual novel genre. Originally released way back in 1998, it was one of the early projects by a developer called Tactics, which is notable because many of the creative team moved on from that…
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Most of the time, Kemco is the publisher that churns out cheap and tacky JRPGs that make RPG Maker projects look professional. And it does them at a shockingly fast rate. And then, every once in a while, it discovers something that is genuinely interesting. Raging Loop is a hell…
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Terra Nil is a story of hope that we sorely need right now. Despite an almost endless stream of warnings over the last few decades, humanity continues to treat climate change’s real and growing threat with blase indifference. The Paris Accord in 2015 was meant to be a turning point,…
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To this day, one of my favourite RTS titles is The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring. With that game (and its sequel) EA (yes, EA!) achieved something truly special: a streamlined, authentic RTS that perfectly captured the aesthetics and drama of the source material, and allowed you…
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The release of Atari 50 last year represented a change in mindset about how retro compilations are packaged up. I hope so, anyway. Including development documents, timelines, video interviews, and other materials made Atari 50 essential, even if those classics aren’t really your kind of games (as is the case…
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Have you ever been to a comedy routine where, for whatever reason, the person at the mic just can’t land a joke? And as the crowd becomes more and more restless they try harder and harder? Sadly, that’s Born of Bread. Related reading: Just released, the Super Mario RPG remake…
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Softstar is Taiwan’s answer to Square Enix, and Sword and Fairy and Xuan-Yuan Sword are like Taiwan’s Final Fantasy. Both properties are huge in their native language, but have struggled to get much of a foothold outside of Chinese-speaking territories. Publisher, eastasiasoft, is trying to establish them worldwide, however, and…
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It has been seven years since the last proper Dragon Quest Monsters title (Joker 3, back on the 3DS), and that one wasn’t released in English. It has been 12 years since the last Dragon Quest Monsters game was released in English (Joker 2, on the DS). It was worth…
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Every so often I do that nonsense Political Compass test. It is nonsense and a generally poor way of reflecting your actual position on topics, but it’s fun to watch where the dot on the matrix moves around over time. And it’s fun to compare your results to how other…
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